<nettime> March 2000

[Le Monde diplomatique <dispatch@Monde-diplomatique.fr>]

   Le Monde diplomatique 
   -----------------------------------------------------
   
   
                                 March 2000
                                      
     
LEADER

Reform in Iran *

by IGNACIO RAMONET

           <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2000/03/01leader>
     
                                                  Translated by Ed Emery
     
     
SUPPLIES HELD OVER A BARREL

What future for the oil industry?

by NICOLAS SARKIS

     The price of a barrel of oil has more than tripled in the space of
     a year, several times passing the $30 mark. The reason for the
     surge is the increase in energy needs consequent on growth and a
     deliberate cap placed on production by Opec, which on 1 April 1999
     decided to stick at 22.98 million barrels a day (not including
     Iraq). To try and force Opec to turn the taps on fuller at the 27
     March summit, President Bill Clinton has quite exceptionally
     threatened to draw on the United States' strategic reserves. If no
     agreement is reached between exporting countries and consumers, the
     oil market is likely to experience renewed shocks which, despite
     the West's reduced dependency, will dampen the nascent recovery.
     
                                         Translated by Malcolm Greenwood
     
     
SOCIAL CRISIS, POLITICAL STALEMATE

Why did Austria lurch to the right?

by PAUL PASTEUR

     When Jörg Haider's Freedom Party joined the Austrian government on
     3 February, it aroused heated emotions all round Europe. The
     reaction of the European governments - spectacular but short-lived
     - was followed by massive demonstrations in Vienna and other
     capitals. But opposing the far-right means getting a clear idea of
     the various forms it takes from one country to another and the
     reasons for its success.
     
                                        Translated by Derry Cook-Radmore
     
Europe's new fascist order

by JEAN-YVES CAMUS

     The far right has never entirely disappeared from the scene in
     Europe, witness current developments in Austria (see article by
     Paul Pasteur). Some movements, excluded from the electoral system
     as in Scandinavia or the United Kingdom for example, turn to
     terrorism, others exploit the blurring of distinctions between
     right and left which makes a nonsense of political representation.
     Thus the problem is not so much the resurgence of 'fascism' as the
     numbing effect on democracy of political and economic consensus.
     
                                            Translated by Barbara Wilson
     
     
CAUGHT BETWEEN ARMY AND SEPARATISTS

Indonesia faces dual assault

by FRANÇOISE CAYRAC-BLANCHARD

     Since the fall of General Suharto, Indonesia has elected
     Abdurrahman Wahid, a democrat and a Muslim, as president and
     recognised the independence of East Timor. If he is to restore
     democracy, however, Wahid must reduce the role of the army which
     has had too much power for too long. His task is all the harder as
     he must urgently resolve two separatist conflicts in Aceh and Papua
     and deal with an explosive situation in the Moluccas.
     
                                         Translated by Malcolm Greenwood
     
     
LESSONS OF WAR

Another way for Kosovo?

by NOAM CHOMSKY

     On the night of 24-25 March 1999 Nato unleashed an air attack on
     Yugoslavia that lasted for 78 days. How should the operation be
     viewed one year on? The suffering of the Kosovar Albanians has
     ended and the refugees have returned to their homes - more often
     than not destroyed - but Kosovo's Serbs and Gypsies have in turn
     been forced to leave. Mitrovica, the last great multiethnic city,
     is the scene of fearsome clashes. And Slobodan Milosevic is still
     in power in Belgrade. Such a failure means the real nature of this
     war needs to be examined. The "genocide" of the Kosovar Albanians
     had to be stopped. But was it not a question of the United States
     using Nato to imposing its grip on the Balkans? Which would explain
     why the allies stubbornly refused any diplomatic solution.
     
                                                Original text in English
     
Media and disinformation

by SERGE HALIMI and DOMINIQUE VIDAL

     For over ten years Kosovo bore the brunt of Belgrade's policy of
     apartheid. Then in 1998 repression of the Kosovo Liberation Army
     (KLA) was brutally stepped up. However was this really, as the
     flood of refugees suggested, a case of genocide that only Western
     intervention could stop? A year later this justification for the
     war waged by Nato has lost a great deal of its credibility, as has
     the supposedly "exemplary" media coverage of the conflict. The
     enquiries by the International Criminal Tribunal for former
     Yugoslavia (ICTY), by European and international bodies, and by a
     number of journalists, show a radically different train of events.
     Nor is the story over, for the Serbs and Gypsies in Kosovo are now
     the targets of "counter ethnic cleansing".
     
                                             Translated by Harry Forster
     
     
ELECTIONS TO THE SOUND OF WAR

Russia seeks a 'new deal' *

by JEAN RADVANYI

     If Vladimir Putin is elected president of the Russian Federation on
     26 March, he will largely owe his victory to the war in Chechnya,
     with its appalling catalogue of massacres, destruction, pillage and
     torture. But Izvestia says that "Putin, man of iron" also likes to
     think of himself as "Vladimir Vladimirovitch Roosevelt". Many
     questions surround the true programme of Boris Yeltsin's successor.
     At any rate he will have to take account of the state of the
     country he has inherited as acting president.
     
           <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2000/03/08russia>
     
                                              Translated by Julie Stoker
     
     
ECONOMIC CRISIS CRIPPLES THE POOR

Eruptions in Ecuador 

by JOSÉ MARÍA TORTOSA

     By dollarising the economy and making the most disadvantaged
     sections of the population pay for the economic crisis, President
     Jamil Mahuad provoked a coup led by several dozen progressive
     officers, the powerful indigenous movement and a few opposition
     politicians. Removed from office on 21 January, he was replaced by
     his vice-president, Gustavo Noboa, who intends to pursue the same
     policy. The army high command and heavy United States pressure lie
     behind this surprising outcome - and the sidelining of the National
     Salvation Junta born of the uprising.
     
                                         Translated by Malcolm Greenwood
     
     
THE NAZARETH MOSQUE DEBACLE

Growing force of Israel's Islamists

by JOSEPH ALGAZY

     When the Pope visits Nazareth on 25 March he will see the mosque
     which for two years has symbolised the Islamists' growing influence
     in Israel's political and religious life. They are represented in
     almost all the municipal councils in Arab districts and their
     pragmatic wing has two members in the Knesset. Yet militants from
     their radical wing were charged with armed attacks inside Israel
     last September. In spite of these internal divisions the Islamists
     are now the main force among Israel's Arab minority - displacing
     the communists and nationalists. As elsewhere in the Middle East,
     this comes from their social and political agenda as much as their
     religious one.
     
                                        Translated by Wendy Kristianasen
     
     
THE POGROM AT EL EJIDO

Spanish apartheid, plastic-wrapped *

by VICTOR ANGEL LLUCH

     The spectacular development of greenhouse crops in Andalucia relies
     on exploiting a mainly Moroccan immigrant community and denying
     them a simple claim to social rights. Pushed out to the outskirts
     of towns, despised for the wretchedness in which they are forced to
     live, some of them are reacting with anti-social behaviour - which
     in turn arouses fear. It is this state of affairs, not just the
     murder of a Spanish woman by a young, mentally-disturbed North
     African, that lies behind the wave of racist violence that engulfed
     El Ejido for three days in early February.
     
           <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2000/03/11spain>
     
                                        Translated by Derry Cook-Radmore
     
     
BACK PAGE

Blue gold of the 21st century

by RICCARDO PETRELLA

     Between 17 and 22 March the second World Water Forum will be
     meeting in the Hague, organised by the Dutch government on the
     basis of an initiative by the World Water Council (WWC), and
     including an international ministerial conference. Such
     international initiatives are at least a start, since those in
     charge of the world's water believe that water has to be treated as
     an economic commodity. They argue that this is the only effective
     way to combat shortages and rapidly rising prices. Water has become
     expensive, and it will be even more expensive in the future, which
     will make it the "blue gold" of the 21st century. To counter this
     grassroots mobilisation is urgently needed.
     
           <http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/en/2000/03/12water>
     
                                                  Translated by Ed Emery
     





          English language editorial director: Wendy Kristianasen

     _________________________________________________________________

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